94855 was dropped off for its regular service, an a/c concern, and an unusual "bed seems loose" concern. During my initial road test, I could clearly see the left front corner of the utility body lifting in my rear view mirror. This is usually a sign that one of the fasteners that holds the body to the truck frame has come loose. Time to get the truck in the air and see what's happening.

The issue at hand is located in the left front corner of the utility body, or directly behind the driver's side of the truck cab. The first thing I quickly realized is that there isn't a lot of room for your hand.

The photo above looks in between the truck cab and utility body on the driver's side of the truck. The bolt seen in the photo is one of the fasteners that holds the utility body to the truck frame.

The problem is not with the fastener, but with the utility body, itself. A large crack can be seen to the right of the bolt.

The piece that is cracked is part of the metal frame of the utility body. In other words, the body is broken !

My parts mirror allowed me to see the crack a little easier.

This truck is very heavy. Not only does it have a utility body, which is full of stuff, it also has a liftgate mounted to the back of the body. All of that weight causes the truck frame to flex quite a bit.

Unfortunately, that flexing over the last 11 years caused the metal frame of the utility body, (which is substantially thinner than the truck frame), to crack. The fix for this involves welding reinforcements to this part of the utility body.

This is going to be a little more involved than meets the eye. This part of the utility body sits directly above the fuel tank. "Welding" and "gasoline" don't mix. So the fuel tank will have to be removed from the truck before repairs can be made.

I removed the fuel tank to get a better look at the utility body damage.

The photo above looks forward at the bottom of the damaged section of the bed frame rail.

With the fuel tank removed, I could now get a better look at the damage from inboard of the left side truck frame rail.

The photo above shows the front of the utility bed where it bolts to the truck frame. The large crack is clearly visible.

The fix for this was to weld brackets to the body frame rail. Shop Foreman Phil welded several reinforcing brackets into place.